Saint-Gobain, the CNRS and the NIMS have just opened the Laboratory for Innovative Key Materials and Structures (LINK) in the presence of the French Ambassador to Japan, Thierry Dana. The aim of this international research center is to develop new materials that could have applications in several of Saint-Gobain’s industrial activities, in particular ceramics, grains and powders, crystals, glazing and abrasives. Linked to both Saint-Gobain and the CNRS, the center is housed at the NIMS in Tsukuba in Japan, one of the world’s leading materials research laboratories. This is the first time Saint-Gobain and the CNRS have opened a joint research center abroad.
The new laboratory is the result of a long cooperation between the three partners: Saint-Gobain, the CNRS and the NIMS. In France, the CNRS and Saint-Gobain have two Joint Research Units based in Saint-Gobain’s research centers in Aubervilliers and Cavaillon. Saint-Gobain and NIMS researchers have been working together in Japan for five years at the Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials, housed at the NIMS in Tsukuba. Finally, after more than 10 years of close cooperation between researchers from the CNRS, the University of Rennes 1 and the NIMS, 2011 saw the introduction of scientific workshops that alternate between France and Japan.
The new project is based on an innovative collaboration model involving high-level researchers from Saint-Gobain, the NIMS and the CNRS. The LINK’s research will focus on creating new materials, including their synthesis, elaboration processes and studies on their physical-chemical properties, closely linked, in France, with the Institute for Chemical Sciences in Rennes, which involves the CNRS, University of Rennes 1, ENSCR and INSA. This research will receive a strong scientific support from teams from the NIMS, which offer unique know-how in structural characterization of materials and modelling of their properties.
The project forms part of the program to strengthen Saint-Gobain’s upstream research, implemented at an international level in conjunction with universities and public-sector research institutes to expand the group’s skills and recruit talented young scientists.
The CNRS already has three international research units in Japan, the Laboratory for Integrated Micro Mechatronics Systems (LIMMS), the Joint Robotics Laboratory and the Japanese-French Laboratory for Informatics (JFLI). The creation of the LINK therefore consolidates the CNRS’s position in Japan.
